selvavsservoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: selva is a noun, servo is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“selva” is a noun and “servo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,695
“selva” frequency rank
#10,270
“servo” frequency rank
17965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature selva servo
Definition bioma florestal caracterizado por vegetação densa e de grande biodiversidade tomar conta, guardar.

Letter map: selva vs servo

Shared letters muted; letters that set selva and servo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
selva
5 ch
servo

Grammar separator: selva vs servo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: selva is anoun and servoaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

selva is recorded at frequency rank #7,695, classified as anoun. servo is at rank #10,270, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈser.woː/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 17965, this pair ranks #53,142 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of selva vs servo

Shared letters: esv. Private to "selva": al. Private to "servo": or.

"selva" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "servo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • selvaeslva · selav · sellva · selvva · sevla · sleva · sselva
  • servoesrvo · serov · serrvo · servvo · sevro · srevo · sservo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "selva" and "servo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "selva" is a noun and "servo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "selva" or "servo"?
"selva" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,695 in our Portuguese list, against #10,270 for "servo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "selva" and "servo".

  • Full dictionary entry for "selva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "servo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,142 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "selva" and "servo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seno vs servo". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #53,142 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list